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Calder High loses out again

Wednesday, 11 February 2015

Josh Fenton-Glynn, Labour's parliamentary candidate for Calder Valley has expressed disbelief that Calder High and Todmorden High have yet again been overlooked by the Government.

Calder High school was described by Michael Gove - until recently the Education Secretary - as the worst school building he had ever seen when he visited before the 2010 election. However, one of his first moves in Government was to cancel the Building Schools for the Future money for both schools' improvements.

The government today announced funding for the rebuilding of over 270 schools, yet Calder High and Todmorden High - which had both been due to benefit from the previous Labour Government's "Building Schools for the Future" programme only to see that axed by George Osborne - are both conspicuous by their absence on the list of selected schools.

Josh Fenton-Glynn Labour's PPC for Calder Valley told the HebWeb, "Like many people I am bitterly disappointed that the Tory-led government has so utterly failed the students of Todmorden and Calder High school.

"In 2010 Craig Whittaker explicitly campaigned on the need for new schools in Calderdale, yet his Party's first action was to cancel the previous Labour government's plans to rebuild the schools and Todmorden and Calder High have been forgotten time and time again ever since.

"Mr Whittaker can protest all he likes but it is his own government who have let down our young people. Will he be standing at the next election as a Conservative candidate? If so, he must stand on a platform of representing the party who ignored the need for better school buildings in Calder Valley.

"His desperate attempts at protesting now, three months ahead of a general election, are pretty hollow given that before this month he has not spoken about Todmorden High in parliament for two years. An MP should be fighting in Westminster for a better deal for our local schools - not making the bizarre and frankly dangerous decision to clamber up on the roof."